Martin Truex, Jr.

Martin Truex, Jr.
Martin Truex, Jr. in 2015
Born	(1980-06-29) June 29, 1980 Mayetta, New Jersey, U.S.
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Weight	180 lb (82 kg)
Achievements	2004, 2005 NASCAR Busch Series Champion
Awards	2004, 2005 Busch Series Most Popular Driver
NASCAR Cup Series career
369 races run over 12 years
Car no., team	No. 78 (Furniture Row Racing)
2015 position	4th
Best finish	4th (2015)
First race	2004 Bass Pro Shops MBNA 500 (Atlanta)
Last race	2017 Ford EcoBoost 400 (Homestead)
First win	2007 Autism Speaks 400 (Dover)
Last win	2015 Axalta "We Paint Winners" 400 (Pocono)
Wins Top tens Poles 3 117 7
NASCAR Xfinity Series career
103 races run over 10 years
Best finish	1st (2004, 2005)
First race	2001 MBNA.com 200 (Dover)
Last race	2010 Ford 300 (Homestead)
First win	2004 Sharpie Professional 250 (Bristol)
Last win	2006 Aaron's 312 (Talladega)
Wins Top tens Poles 13 61 10
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series career
2 races run over 2 years
Best finish	77th (2005)
First race	2005 Toyota Tundra Milwaukee 200 (Milwaukee)
Last race	2006 Con-way Freight 200 (Michigan)
Wins Top tens Poles 0 0 0
Statistics current as of November 22, 2015.

Martin Lee Truex, Jr. (born June 29, 1980) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He currently drives the No. 78 Toyota Camry for Furniture Row Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. Truex is a two-time Xfinity Series champion; having won the title in 2004 and 2005. His younger brother, Ryan is a champion in the K&N Pro Series East division and briefly drove in the Cup Series for BK Racing, while his cousin Curtis raced for JR Motorsports.

Personal life

Truex was born in Trenton, New Jersey, and grew up in the Mayetta section of Stafford Township, New Jersey. He graduated from Southern Regional High School in 1998. His father, Martin Truex, Sr., was a former race winner in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, then called the NASCAR Busch North Series. His younger brother, Ryan, is a former champion in the K&N Pro Series East, and was a contender for 2014 Rookie of the Year in Sprint Cup.

Truex is an avid fan of the Philadelphia Flyers of the NHL.

Truex and his girlfriend Sherry Pollex have been together since 2005. They founded the Martin Truex, Jr. Foundation to support children with pediatric cancer, but three months after the foundation, Sherry was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

Early career

The younger Truex began racing in the NASCAR Camping World East Series in 2000, and won 5 races in 4 years with a family-owned team. After moving south, Truex rented a home from Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in Mooresville, North Carolina, before he purchased his own home.

In 2000, Truex, following in his father's footsteps, began racing in the Busch North Series (now the K&N Pro Series East. He ran three full seasons (2000 to 2002) and made limited starts in 2003. During his time in the Busch North Series, Truex claimed 13 poles and 5 wins driving his family-owned #56 SeaWatch Chevy.

NASCAR

2001–2005: Busch Series

Truex made his first Busch Series start in 2001 at Dover International Speedway in his father's #56 XST Paintable Silicon Chevy. He started 19th but finished 38th after an early wreck. In 2002, Truex drove one race for Phoenix Racing at New Hampshire International Speedway, starting thirteenth and finishing twenty-ninth. He ran three races the rest of that season for his father, his best finish seventeenth at Dover.

In 2003, he began the season with his father's team, before he was hired by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. to drive his #81 Chance 2 Motorsports Chevy. He made his debut with Chance 2 at Richmond International Raceway, where he qualified sixth and led eleven laps before transmission failure forced him to a 31st-place finish. He split time between Chance 2 and his father's team for the balance of the season, except at Dover, where he drove for Stanton Barrett. He had a sixth-place run at Bristol Motor Speedway, and ended the season with two consecutive second-place finishes. He ran a total of ten races that season.

Truex raced full-time for Chance 2 in 2004. At Bristol Motor Speedway, he would earn his first career victory, and he would later add 3 more victories over the next 7 races. This would include a victory at Talladega Superspeedway which broke his car owner's streak of winning restrictor plate races in the Busch Series, and a victory at the final NASCAR event held at Nazareth Speedway. He took the lead in the championship after Nazareth, but lost it to rookie Kyle Busch a few races later. However, a series of top 5's and top 10's in the second half of the season would allow Truex to pull away from Busch, clinching the Busch Series championship with a race to spare. While on his way to that championship, Truex made an appearance in the Nextel Cup Series as a relief driver to Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who'd suffered burns in a sports car accident. Truex started his first career Cup race for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. in the #1 at Atlanta Motor Speedway later that year, qualifying 33rd and finishing 37th.

Truex stayed in the Busch Series to defend his championship in 2005, winning the title for the second season in a row. He won the first Busch Series points race held outside the United States, in Mexico, as well as defending his wins at Talladega and Dover International Speedway. He took his first win at Daytona International Speedway on July 1, 2005.

2006–2009: Earnhardt Ganassi Racing

2008 Sprint Cup car

In 2006, Truex moved to the #1 Bass Pro Shops/DEI-sponsored Chevy full-time in the Nextel Cup Series. He had two Top 5 finishes and finished 19th in points. Truex got his first win of the 2007 season in the NASCAR Nextel All-Star Open, securing a spot in the 2007 Nextel All-Star Challenge, where he finished 10th. A few weeks later, he won the Autism Speaks 400, scoring his first Sprint Cup Series win with an interval of seven seconds betweenpole sitter Ryan Newman and himself, even though he led pretty much half of the race—219 of the 400 laps. This victory led to a jump in overall points advancing him to 13th, followed by a third-place finish at Pocono Raceway and a second-place finish at Michigan. With a 15th-place finish in the Chevy Rock and Roll 400, Truex clinched a spot in his first Chase for the Sprint Cup and finished 11th in points at season's end. He did not go to victory lane in 2008, but he did have 11 Top 10's and finished 15th in points. At the beginning of the 2009 season, Dale Earnhardt, Inc. merged with Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates and was renamed Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Truex began the year by winning the pole for the Daytona 500. Later in the season, Truex had acclaimed two more pole positions at Atlanta and Phoenix, following his first pole in 2007 at Texas. 2009 would be his final season with Earnhardt Ganassi Racing.

2010–2013: Michael Waltrip Racing

2010–2011

2011 Sprint Cup car following accident at Martinsville

At the conclusion of the 2009 season, Truex left Earnhardt Ganassi Racing to drive the #56 NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored Toyota Camry for Michael Waltrip Racing, receiving owner points from the #55 car formerly driven by Waltrip. The #56 was the number Martin's father drove in during his time in the Grand National Division and is considered the "family number". In his first race for Michael Waltrip Racing, Truex finished sixth in the Daytona 500.

After the series of setbacks the following 3 weeks with a blown engine and accidents, he fell back to 24th in the point standings, but in the next 7 races after finishing in the top 12 5 times and all top 19 finishes, he would gain to 13th in the point standings. At Dover, he earned his 5th career pole. Truex won the All Star Showdown at Charlotte thereby earning the 1st transfer spot for the All Star Race which he finished 2nd in from a 19th (out of 21) starting spot. Truex would go on to finish the 2010 season 22nd in the point standings with 1 top 5 finish and 7 top 10 finishes.

At Martinsville the following year in 2011, Truex accidentally made slight contact with Kasey Kahne resulting in a large wreck; Truex hit the wall hard head on and his car flew on fire for a few seconds as Kahne hit the wall in his car's rear. Truex climbed out instantly and went to check on Kahne who received standing ovation as he climbed out uninjured. Truex then left with officials to the care center. He said the wreck was his hardest of his career and both Truex and Kahne were released with normal symptoms. The next week officials told him his wreck was the hardest crash at Martinsville. Truex won another pole at Dover International Raceway. Truex ran well in most of the races but often struggled to finish the races off. He was docked 25 points because of a windshield violation in the fall Talladega race. Truex ended the season 18th in points, with 3 top 5s and 12 top 10s.

2012

Truex started 2012 well, winning a $100,000 bonus and finishing 7th in the Daytona 500. He finally hit his stride in Texas, winning the pole and leading 69 laps. The following week at Kansas he started sixth and flat-out dominated the race, leading 173 of 267 laps but falling short to Denny Hamlin. At Atlanta he led 40 of the final 46 laps, but ultimately fell short to Hamlin again when he was forced to pit under a late race caution for fuel, ending up fourth. Truex finished 21st, however he had a spot clinched in the chase, and ultimately made it in. He ended up 11th in the points, with 0 wins, 7 top 5s and 19 top 10s.

2013

Truex's 2013 Sprint Cup car at Texas Motor Speedway

Truex had an up and down 2013 season. He had a few top five finishes in the early races. His first best run of 2013 was Texas, when he led during the final 55 laps of the race but ended up losing to Kyle Busch. Truex also had low notes, including an accident at Martinsville and a blown engine at Dover. The highlight of the season was at Sonoma, when Truex broke a 218 race winless streak, starting 14th on the starting grid and working his way up to win by over eight seconds over Jeff Gordon. Truex's 218 race winless streak is second only to Bill Elliott, who went winless in 226 races between 1994 to 2001. It is only the second time a car numbered #56 won in NASCAR's highest division, the first being Jim Hurtubise in a 1966 Atlanta race.

Returning to Bristol, Truex was involved in a wreck on Lap 448 where his car hit an inside wall at an angle that he broke his right wrist; he continued racing in spite of wearing a cast on his right wrist. At Atlanta, despite nursing a broken wrist, Truex finished third to Kyle Busch and Joey Logano. In the final race at Richmond, he was in the midst of a fierce battle for the final Wildcard spot, eventually coming out over Ryan Newman by a tiebreaker. As Newman and Truex each had one win, the Wildcard spot went to Truex, for having a better number of top-five finishes than Newman; however on Monday evening, it was announced that due to MWR having attempted to manipulate the results of the race, points penalties were assessed - 50 points for Truex, Clint Bowyer and Brian Vickers each - that resulted in Truex being bumped from the Chase and Newman and Jeff Gordon being added to the Chase field, as well as probation for all 3 crew chiefs, suspension of Ty Norris, and a $300,000 fine. In the final 10 races of the season, Truex had 4 top 10 finishes, which included a top 5 run at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

2014–present: Furniture Row Racing

2014

On October 14, 2013, it was announced that Michael Waltrip Racing's No. 56 would become a research and development team in 2014. This in part was due to NAPA Auto Parts deciding to withdraw their sponsorship in the fallout from the Richmond controversy. Truex was told he could offer his services as a driver to other teams, and on October 17 it was confirmed that for the 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season Truex would move to Furniture Row Racing and drive the #78 Chevrolet SS being vacated by Kurt Busch. When the deal was formally announced on November 1, 2013, before the Texas race, it was announced that Furniture Row had also signed on all of the members of Truex's MWR pit crew.

Truex's 2014 season started with an outside pole qualifying run for the Daytona 500, Furniture Row Racing's first front row start in the 500. However, Truex's engine failed on lap 31.

Truex did poorly in the spring but rebounded with 4 top tens in the later part of the season. He only led a single lap (at Talladega in the October race) and finished 24th in the final points.

2015

Martin Truex Jr. at the 2015 Daytona 500.

Prior to the 2015 season, crew chief Todd Berrier was released and replaced with rookie crew chief Cole Pearn.

Truex's season began on a high note. He led the most laps of the Sprint Unlimited (28 of 75) . He led late but after a late-race red flag period erased his 5-second lead on Joey Logano, Truex lost his rhythm and finished second to Matt Kenseth. In a post-race interview an emotional Truex said "We needed this. The race was over once Kenseth pulled away from me. But we needed this. After the last year and a half that I've had this satisfies a lot."

Truex continued his good momentum, finishing in the top ten in 14 of the first 15 races including a runner-up at Las Vegas. His only poor finish during this period was a 29th-place finish at Bristol, seven laps down, after being swept up in a late race accident.

At Kansas, Truex led the most laps (95), but a late caution killed his chances as he slipped back to 9th on the last restart, and he was unable to make up enough ground to catch Jimmie Johnson.

At the Coca-Cola 600, Truex led the most laps (131 of 400), but with 20 laps to go he had to make a late race fuel stop and finished 5th. At Dover, Truex led the most laps again (131 of 405), but a poor restart caused him to slide back to seventh and cost him the race to Johnson.

At Pocono, Truex started third, and ran up front for most of the race, leading 97 of 160 laps. On the last restart, he managed to pull away to a 1.8 second lead on Kevin Harvick to take the checkered flag in first place. For Truex, this snapped a 69 race winless streak, and was also the fourth straight points race in which he led the most laps. It was the second win for Furniture Row Racing and the first for crew chief Cole Pearn. It is considered by many to be the most popular victory in years.

With a third-place finish in a rain shortened Michigan race, Truex became the first driver since Richard Petty in 1969 to start a Cup season with 14 top-10 finishes through the first 15 races. At Sonoma, Truex was running in the top 20 until shortly after the first restart, when David Ragan turned him in the esses, which saw Truex crash into a jersey barrier, resulting in a 42nd-place finish. At Daytona, Truex was running up front until he was caught up in a crash on lap 106, relegating him to a 38th-place finish. Despite a string of bad races, Truex nonetheless made the Chase for the Sprint Cup and advanced through the first 2 rounds of the Chase. He also advanced to the final four at Homestead-Miami and went on to finish 4th in the final standings.

Motorsports career results

NASCAR

(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time. Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Sprint Cup Series

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	NSCC	Pts
2004	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.	1	Chevy	DAY	CAR	LVS	ATL	DAR	BRI	TEX	MAR	TAL	CAL	RCH	CLT	DOV	POC	MCH	SON	DAY	CHI	NHA	POC	IND	GLN	MCH	BRI	CAL	RCH	NHA DNQ	DOV	TAL	KAN	CLT	MAR	ATL 37	PHO	DAR	HOM 32	70th	119
2005				DAY 34	CAL	LVS	ATL	BRI	MAR	TEX	PHO	TAL 21	DAR	RCH	CLT 7	DOV	POC	MCH	SON	DAY	CHI	NHA	POC	IND 42	GLN	MCH	BRI	CAL	RCH	NHA	DOV	TAL 28	KAN	CLT	MAR	ATL 40	TEX 15	PHO	HOM	47th	589
2006				DAY 16	CAL 15	LVS 20	ATL 19	BRI 38	MAR 19	TEX 8	PHO 22	TAL 36	RCH 41	DAR 14	CLT 21	DOV 22	POC 24	MCH 15	SON 16	DAY 29	CHI 19	NHA 18	POC 10	IND 19	GLN 28	MCH 30	BRI 18	CAL 18	RCH 40	NHA 22	DOV 6	KAN 11	TAL 5	CLT 31	MAR 36	ATL 37	TEX 14	PHO 12	HOM 2	19th	3673
2007				DAY 29	CAL 42	LVS 12	ATL 8	BRI 37	MAR 29	TEX 7	PHO 20	TAL 10	RCH 28	DAR 11	CLT 16	DOV 1	POC 3	MCH 2	SON 24	NHA 3	DAY 13	CHI 39	IND 12	POC 22	GLN 6	MCH 2	BRI 11	CAL 6	RCH 15	NHA 5	DOV 13	KAN 38	TAL 42	CLT 17	MAR 19	ATL 31	TEX 3	PHO 7	HOM 6	11th	6164
2008				DAY 20	CAL 6	LVS 15	ATL 21	BRI 13	MAR 21	TEX 36	PHO 8	TAL 37	RCH 5	DAR 14	CLT 34	DOV 6	POC 17	MCH 17	SON 16	NHA 4	DAY 17	CHI 9	IND 24	POC 15	GLN 5	MCH 16	BRI 35	CAL 19	RCH 16	NHA 7	DOV 20	KAN 43	TAL 41	CLT 14	MAR 10	ATL 15	TEX 8	PHO 43	HOM 10	15th	3839
2009	Earnhardt Ganassi Racing			DAY 11	CAL 27	LVS 32	ATL 10	BRI 26	MAR 29	TEX 25	PHO 7	TAL 33	RCH 22	DAR 6	CLT 23	DOV 21	POC 18	MCH 26	SON 25	NHA 37	DAY 25	CHI 16	IND 17	POC 19	GLN 28	MCH 21	BRI 22	ATL 26	RCH 39	NHA 19	DOV 33	KAN 16	CAL 22	CLT 9	MAR 28	TAL 31	TEX 14	PHO 5	HOM 9	23rd	3503
2010	Michael Waltrip Racing	56	Toyota	DAY 6	CAL 39	LVS 20	ATL 27	BRI 12	MAR 5	PHO 17	TEX 9	TAL 12	RCH 7	DAR 19	DOV 12	CLT 23	POC 25	MCH 17	SON 42	NHA 22	DAY 35	CHI 11	IND 26	POC 9	GLN 15	MCH 8	BRI 17	ATL 12	RCH 22	NHA 20	DOV 34	KAN 20	CAL 18	CLT 15	MAR 29	TAL 6	TEX 38	PHO 15	HOM 11	22nd	3916
2011				DAY 19	PHO 14	LVS 6	BRI 17	CAL 21	MAR 40	TEX 35	TAL 13	RCH 27	DAR 10	DOV 8	CLT 26	KAN 20	POC 10	MCH 26	SON 8	DAY 35	KEN 18	NHA 8	IND 24	POC 12	GLN 4	MCH 19	BRI 2	ATL 14	RCH 30	CHI 18	NHA 16	DOV 30	KAN 36	CLT 23	TAL 10	MAR 8	TEX 8	PHO 20	HOM 3	18th	937
2012				DAY 12	PHO 7	LVS 17	BRI 3	CAL 8	MAR 5	TEX 6	KAN 2	RCH 25	TAL 28	DAR 5	CLT 12	DOV 7	POC 20	MCH 12	SON 22	KEN 8	DAY 17	NHA 11	IND 8	POC 3	GLN 10	MCH 10	BRI 11	ATL 4	RCH 21	CHI 9	NHA 17	DOV 6	TAL 13	CLT 10	KAN 2	MAR 23	TEX 13	PHO 43	HOM 6	11th	2299
2013				DAY 24	PHO 36	LVS 8	BRI 12	CAL 18	MAR 40	TEX 2	KAN 4	RCH 17	TAL 7	DAR 12	CLT 9	DOV 38	POC 23	MCH 3	SON 1*	KEN 7	DAY 41	NHA 16	IND 11	POC 15	GLN 3	MCH 16	BRI 35	ATL 3	RCH 7	CHI 18	NHA 10	DOV 15	KAN 19	CLT 22	TAL 8	MAR 16	TEX 14	PHO 8	HOM 4	16th	998
2014	Furniture Row Racing	78	Chevy	DAY 43	PHO 22	LVS 14	BRI 36	CAL 23	MAR 21	TEX 18	DAR 27	RCH 10	TAL 17	KAN 21	CLT 25	DOV 6	POC 9	MCH 37	SON 15	KEN 19	DAY 15	NHA 12	IND 25	POC 32	GLN 13	MCH 36	BRI 20	ATL 23	RCH 25	CHI 14	NHA 12	DOV 7	KAN 4	CLT 14	TAL 27	MAR 38	TEX 19	PHO 12	HOM 17	24th	857
2015				DAY 8	ATL 6	LVS 2	PHO 7	CAL 8	MAR 6	TEX 9	BRI 29	RCH 10	TAL 5	KAN 9*	CLT 5*	DOV 6*	POC 1*	MCH 3	SON 42	DAY 38	KEN 17	NHA 12	IND 4	POC 19	GLN 25	MCH 3	BRI 28	DAR 9	RCH 32	CHI 13	NHA 8	DOV 11	CLT 3	KAN 15	TAL 7	MAR 6	TEX 8	PHO 14	HOM 12	4th	5032

Daytona 500

Year	Team	Manufacturer	Start	Finish
2005	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.	Chevrolet	10	34
2006			19	16
2007			13	29
2008			25	20
2009	Earnhardt Ganassi Racing		1	11
2010	Michael Waltrip Racing	Toyota	14	6
2011			20	19
2012			26	12
2013			37	24
2014	Furniture Row Racing	Chevrolet	2	43
2015			10	8

Craftsman Truck Series

NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	NCTC	Pts
2005	Billy Ballew Motorsports	15	Chevy	DAY	CAL	ATL	MAR	GTY	MFD	CLT	DOV	TEX	MCH	MLW 15	KAN	KEN	MEM	IRP	NSH	BRI	RCH	NHA	LVS	MAR	ATL	TEX	PHO	HOM	77th	106
2006		51		DAY	CAL	ATL	MAR	GTY	CLT	MFD	DOV	TEX	MCH 34	MLW	KAN	KEN	MEM	IRP	NSH	BRI	NHA	LVS	TAL	MAR	ATL	TEX	PHO	HOM	85th	61

^* Season still in progress
¹ Ineligible for series points

International Race of Champions

(key) (Bold – Pole position. * – Most laps led.)

International Race of Champions results
Year	Make	1	2	3	4	Pos.	Points
2005	Pontiac	DAY 2	TEX 4	RCH 5	ATL 1*	2nd	68
2006		DAY 5	TEX 3	DAY 6	ATL 1	3rd	57

External links

• Official website
• Martin Truex, Jr. driver statistics at Racing-Reference

Sporting positions
Preceded by Brian Vickers	NASCAR Busch Series Champion 2004, 2005	Succeeded by Kevin Harvick